My Newly Renovated Upstairs Living Room

I hope you have some time because this is going to be a long one. I am finally happy with my upstairs living room. I think this is the 4th time I've updated it. But this time I really, truly love it. I still have a few things I want to do for artwork but this badboy can finally be checked off the list.

It first started at the beginning of the year when I finally started using the desk upstairs for my new office. I had been working from home for about 9 months and sitting downstairs at my dining table. It was super uncomfortable, my back was killing me, I had paperwork and files all over. It just wasn't ideal. Since my dining room is right next to my living room (roughly 2 feet from the dining table are my living room chairs), my computer was right there ALL DAY LONG. I'd hear an email ding and I'd be back at my laptop, all hours of the day. I felt like I never stopped working because it wasn't in a space that I could walk away from. If I'm sitting on my couch, I can still read emails from my laptop on the table- it was that close.

When I got back from MA for the holiday, I decided that it was time to start using the desk. It was basically unclaimed property at this point and was taking up valuable space, might as well make use of it. But man, was this thing ugly. Don't get me wrong, it's a gorgeous desk. But it was very "not my style" in the design. Specifically the door pulls and handles.

See? Awful. I ordered new hardware and couldn't wait to put it on when it arrived. Check out the new brushed brass. Way more my style.

Then came time to accessorize. I found some cute office supplies and organizers and a couple of faux plants. It was definitely a starting to feel more like my desk.

While this helped make me want to work upstairs, the rest of the room was really lacking. I had just recently turned it from redo #3 to navy blue theme. I couldn't find a good photo (probably cuz I still hated the room) but I had an area rug, couple of pillows, curtains, that macramé dip dyed craft and artwork that gave it the navy blue vibe.

As you can see in the above photo- that wall with the window is completely taken up by the desk, side table, and sectional. The desk is also L-shaped, which you'll see it fully in a bit. But the room was very heavy on that side. The other wall was the TV and 4 leaning bookcases.

I have had those bookcases since I lived in Florida and I just had my 12 year house anniversary. So it was time for them to go. But I still wanted the books to be displayed, I wanted something different for the TV, and I wanted to have a reason to toss that diy craft. HAH! So why not build a new TV/bookcase unit? I mean, how hard could it be?

I started off drawing out what I wanted after searching Pinterest for some inspiration. Some of you might remember me posting this back in May.

Then I sent it to my dad to see how difficult he thought it'd be to build. I think in a nutshell he was like "Ummm yeah kiddo, you aren't going to want to do that. That's way too hard." Humph. Well that sucked. I had already given away the bookcases that I had, tore up the room where I couldn't even walk through it... now what do I do?

I started reading a few blogs that other ladies run and found that they built them and provided nice step by step instructions. So I went back to my dad and was like "Ummm other chicks can do it, so why can't I?" Or something like that. And he was basically like- OK lets figure it out.

I went and bought upper kitchen cabinets- 5 of them to be exact. They are 30" X 30" and only 12" deep. I built a base to raise them up first. While I built the base, I also put carpet tacks down under the carpet for them to sit on, since the back of the base would already have the carpet tacks there and I didn't want to have the cabinets eventually start to sink towards the front. This was a suggestion from my dad- I wasn't even thinking about anything like that.

Took me a little bit but I had that done and the cabinets attached to each other and on the base. And shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit was this thing going to be huge. Obviously I can do math- 5 cabinets at 30" is 150". But in my head and even measuring it out didn't seem like it was that big. Until the cabinets were all in a row.

Then it was time to pick out what color I wanted them- which led to changing the loft from gray to white. Which basically meant me pulling all of that furniture out of the room so that I could paint. Ugh.

Below you can really see the difference in paint color.

Who would have thought I'd go back to white walls? But for the look I was going for- I needed them to be white. I didn't go past the desk as I couldn't move that myself, even in pieces. So I waited for my dad and aunt to arrive at the end of July and we knocked this room out. I actually didn't think we'd get the room finished while they were here, but I basically had everything in place with at least one coat on it as they were pulling out of the driveway. And it looked awesome! But before I show you the finished product, there's more.

You can see in all of the above photos- there is no overhead light in this room. Which is just stupid. The only lights I have are the two lamps on the side tables and the lights within the desk. It's always so dark in here, which is great for movie nights, but not for working. Prior to my dad coming out, I called him one day and started with "So how difficult would it be...." which I immediately knew he was like "Fuuuuuuuck what now?" HAH. I asked how we could get power to the ceiling. And by "we" I totally mean how "he" could. :) He basically said find a light and order it to have it there and if we can get power up there, then we're all good. If not, you can return the light. I heard- "no problem favorite daughter of mine, I'll definitely stand up in your 400 degree attic for hours pulling electrical wire, slamming my head multiple times into nails poking through the roof, sweating my ass off and almost passing out so that you can have a light." Cuz yes, all of that happened. Sorry dad, hope your head has healed.

The room went from no light fixture to this super cool sputnik light.

You guys- it's like literally night and day in there when that light is turned on. Ten lightbulbs definitely lights up the room! I think this light was $52 and it's the best $52 I have ever spent. For real. Even my dad said as he was icing his head, that it looked really good.

Then came time to build the top for the cabinets. I wanted it to be stained wood but didn't want the cost of a premade butcherblock top. Plus this thing is 12 1/2 feet long and I doubted I could find anything in that size without piecing it together and also having to cut half of it off for the 12" depth. We headed to our favorite store and picked up wood- which was finished on one side and rough on the other, 8 foot boards roughly $5-6 a piece. We grabbed 8 of them, got home and ripped them down so they were even widths, then put a trim border around it. Also I started painting the fronts of the cabinets at the same time.

At this point the vision was really coming to life. I was super excited. The next day we started on the bookcases. I didn't take any during the process photos but below is the finished shot.

And painted them that night so they'd dry overnight.

Then we brought them upstairs the next morning to see how they fit. They were huge. But oh my word was it looking so good.

Oh and you can see above the electrical- there was one switch already there for the lamps. We added another for the overhead light.

Once we had the two bookcases up, it was time to start on the middle. If you couldn't tell from the drawing, the middle was going to be my favorite thing ever. Guys, I have been obsessing over black shiplap for years. I just didn't have anywhere in the house to actually use it. Until now! We started by putting up plywood and securing it to the wall studs. Then attached tongue and groove (so not really shiplap) to the plywood.

Also you can see under the shelves we did little blocks that we attached to the sides and the shelves so the boards don't warp. Those were eventually painted black and you can't even see them. But they'll really help in the long run.

But can we talk about that black wall? I'm in love. It's exactly what I wanted. Oh and in the above photo you can see we installed the black baseboard as well. It really finishes off the bottom cabinets.

Then came time for trimming out the bookcases.

We did the sides, top and shelves in the same trim. I didn't get a photo of the shelves before I painted them. But you'll see in the below photo. Once the trim was on- we installed the tv bracket, cut out a hole and ran the wires behind the wall and down to the cabinets and then pulled the wires through the cabinets and plugged them into the outlets in the cabinets.

And for those of you who are like- dang she needs to get a bigger TV (cuz believe me I've already heard it like 6 times)- this is a 56" TV. It just looks really tiny because the unit is ginormous! In person it doesn't look ridiculously small. One other thing we did was add a trim piece to the entire top of the unit as well which you can see in the above photo.

This was where the room was left when my dad and aunt left to go back to MA. I took my time doing a few more coats on everything, had a few events at work that made me take a break from working on it (you can see the cabinet doors in my bedroom on the right of this photo. Definitely needed to get those painted as I really wanted to see this completely done and I knew the black doors being installed would completely change the look of it.

Last weekend, I got out my paint sprayer and laid out the doors in my garage. I put two coats on the front and let them dry a couple of days then put two coats on the back. I brought them up this past Monday and installed them, letting them dry for another couple of days.

It isn't a post if Janie doesn't photobomb me.

I also put my vintage cameras on display on the countertop. Then can time to put the books back on the shelves (and hope and pray that the shelves didn't come crashing down). Yes they are alphabetized. No I'm not a psycho. I also added the knobs yesterday. I got the same knobs I used on the desk so they coordinate.

But seriously though- how freaking awesome is this? Below are more glamour shots for your viewing pleasure.

The full room is really hard to capture with my phone camera. So here are a few more random shots- but this time with the new rug and pillows and my favorite gray velvet Ikea curtains. I'm building some wood art to go over the couch on the back wall and then I need to find something for the wall above the filing cabinet/side table on the other wall. I'll also be building a coffee table, similar to the bedroom benches I recently made, but this more square. I already ordered the fabric for it so once it arrives I'll start on that.